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Asma has won this month’s vote for Patreon bonus strip! Any and all patrons can go check out the strip at the Dumbing of Age Patreon.
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oh god I sympathize with Faz
the world is ending nooooooo
(srsly tho, dang)
the world ends, not with a bang, but with Faz’s erection
It is written in ancient prophecy that the world will only truly end Wen bangs Faz’s erection.
Yep, that’s it, I’m flying to another planet if that happens. FIRE UP THE SPACE BRIDGE…
…*ahem* TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!
An end is just another name for a butt. Let us lead into all endings with Faz’s erection! This ending is a new beginning, for Faz!
So, I was free associating about the end of the world, and then I was trying to work in a Fenrir Wolf connection, and then I thought of Tyr’s hand…and then I winced and tried to forget everything I know about the Norse eddas.
(JK they are delightfully twisted, and apropos of nothing, where is my copy of The Merry Spinster?)
But Tyr’s Hand got eaten by a giant protodragon, and thus the blacksmith of the keepers made him a new, shining hand of silver, and after which he named his Hammer.
I was confused by this response, then I remembered to check the date it was posted…
This makes Faz sad, for Faz dearly wished to bang.
I knew Faz was going to be a more worthwhile character than Malaya.
Especially with that particular gravitar
Hey now. I am excited about this development too, but let’s not be silly.
No one is a more worthwhile character than Malaya.
Ha, yeah! Even NO ONE is a more worthwhile character than *Malaya!* >:D
That was what you were trying to say, right?
Well that escalated quickly
…chaaaaaaaracter development?????
Great. Now I feel sorry for Faz. That’s like feeling sorry for athelete’s foot.
*draws a Venn Diagram…
…Faz Circle…
…Athlete’s Foot Circle…
…Sets a magnifying glass to where they overlook–
“JOCK ITCH”*
Thank you – best laugh all day.
Cue Rimshot!
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Joyce going to perform “sympathy salvation” on Faz?
Oh damn, that just sounds soooo bad…
“Faz and Joyce Perform a Sympathy Salvation”?
plz no
Yeah, don’t think any of us saw THAT coming.
Anyone else reminded of “Moral Orel” with Shapey (the little hellion) saying “When I’m thirsty, it feels like I feel when I’m alone.”
According to tv tropes, the creator of the series wrote that because it is something his kid said to him once. Dino had many familiar problems, including his divorce that inspired the episode where Clay rants about why he embraces the things he hates.
I misread Faz’s line in the last panel, and thought he was talking about not having maintained his erection in quite some time.
Poor kid needs to go to the hospital soon, if that’s the case.
(Maintaining all this time without thinking about it, that is. Blood clots aren’t a joke.)
When AMBER is the nicest person in your life…
Yeah, I think we all read the Blaine situation with him correctly (or, everything is terrible,) and this suggests that whatever his mom’s doing keeping her from answering Amber’s calls, it’s not looking for him. Ouch.
hmm. Amber’s not gonna like finding out about that, she’s still pretty intent on seeing herself as garbage.
I mean, all that means is she’s a step up from Blaine. … Though that’s probably still a step up from where she’s seeing herself, so you’ve got a point. Maybe she’ll find some way to twist it off onto AG? Who knows.
I figure a big part of it is not Amber being nice to him, but her being able to stand up to Blaine.
Amber may be grumpy, but she’s a very nice person. You could do a fuckton worse than having nobody nicer than her in your life.
She’s caustic, anti-social, and potentially violent. She’s got her good points for sure, but her closest friends are either very passive (Ethan/Danny), not great at social cues (Dina), or just, well, Mike.
You’re not disproving the point of anyone in this chain. It’s entirely possible that, with all that you’ve pointed out, Amber is still literally the nicest person he knows.
The question is, who else does he have to turn to? And it may be that the answer is, no one.
Amber is introverted, which has absolutely no bearing on how “nice” someone is. The fact that she doesn’t like being around lots of people has not stopped her from repeatedly showing kindness to her friends, and to people she barely knows, like she has with Joyce, and with Walky up on the roof.
Also, WTF do the personalities of her friends have to do with her being nice or not?
If you’re not a rapist or in the middle of violently attacking someone, you’re safe from Amber.
You’re kind of confusing how she is with strangers and/or people who she has demonstrable reason to view as hostile.
Like by all accounts she was the one doing the heavy lifting of Ethan’s coming out for him, which is staggeringly nice and consider, kind of excessively so actually.
Also she routinely risks her life, health, and freedom to help people in need as an actual goshdarn superhero so
It’s not staggeringly nice and considerate to try and force someone out of the closet when they’re not comfortable or ready to come out yet. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of that. Coming out is pants-shitting terrifying and having someone trying to push you to do it when you’re not ready makes things worse not better.
I don’t think that we have indication that she pressured Ethan to come out to his family? It is true that she got angry at him reclosetting himself, which is shitty, though it was fairly apparent that was because she was jealous. Not good behaviour. But after that she did cool down and more or less accept that it was Ethan’s right to proceed as he chose, especially if he wasn’t lieing to Joyce about it.
You might be right that she pressured him post prom, but I don’t think that we have seen any evidence of that.
She’s literally flipped a table at Ethan, too. And blown up at Danny multiple times to the point where he’s apologizing just to calm her down when he has no idea what he did wrong.
The point isn’t that Amber isn’t a GOOD person. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have consoled Joyce or saved Becky. But you can be a good person while not being very nice at all. Ruth and Carla and Billie are all good people, and they’ve all done things out of kindness, but I’d rarely call them nice people.
Batman is good, but I don’t think anyone would call him “nice”. Except maybe the Joker, if he was trying to wind him up.
She had an angry outburst that she reined in almost immediately. It is entirely possible to have a temper problem AND be a nice person.
Hell, she recently spent an entire day TRYING to be mean to make Amazi-Girl look bad, and FAILED.
Amber has anger issues. Among her other issues.
I’d say she was nice, despite that. I don’t see her as caustic. She’s generally been friendly and helpful, if withdrawn – except when she loses control of her anger. I can’t think of a time when she’s been deliberately mean.
Compare with Sarah or Carla, who are also both good people, but aren’t nice.
Amber’s a good person. She is NOT what I would call a nice person.
Maybe if he wasn’t such an ass, more people would be nice to him, including people outside his family.
It doesn’t really matter how nice Amber is in general; it’s more about like, how nice is Amber to Faz? From what I can tell, that’s not very nice.
He showed up out of nowhere, without invitation, and she has spent most of her day trying to keep him out of trouble to protect him from his abusive step dad.
That’s pretty damn nice, imo
Oh jeez. Does he live with one of the Worst Dads ever, Blaine? (Is that his name? I deleted it from my memory due to him being so awful.)
Oh Faz.
Blaine is the name, yes. You’d be forgiven for purging it again.
Blaine is a Pain
Yeah, Blaine’s married to Faz’s mom. (Who we know nothing about, but if Amber compares favorably when she has like zero patience for him and given she’s not answering calls, not ranking very well. Also in the old universe she was probably the daughter of a Korean mobster, possibly more involved herself, so make of that what you will.)
Faz’s mom STILL might have ties to the mob, as Blaine is described as “a Literal Mob Stooge” by Richard.
So close, yet so far.
Literally any character: *views Faz in a sympathetic light*
Faz: *talks about his erection*
Repeat as needed.
Kid needs a frickin filter.
This time might be progress, though. It was him noting a trend on the graph of people not trying to get away from him as mentions of his erection also go down.
This may be a good sign.
Baaaabyyyyy….
But I’m a bit confused; this makes it seem like Amber lived with Blaine and Faz, at least partly, or maybe has visitations with him, but when Blaine first showed up, Amber said she hadn’t seen him in years.
I’m similarly confused, I had the same read that you did.
She may not have seen Blaine, but may have seen Faz. If they lived in the same general area, it’s not unlikely that Faz could “happen” to show up in social areas where Amber was. Amber’s irritation with the kid now is now looking to be due to surprise and Faz acting like a teenager in a woman’s dorm.
I think that means even though they only interacted briefly, Amber was ‘the nicest’ to him. So his home life sucks, and he doesn’t want to be at home, and the one place he could think to go was where Amber lived. Which is even sadder.
Of course, Amber could have also met Faz before her and Blaine stopped interacting?
I was wondering about that too. I am guessing that at the time David Willis didn’t have plans to have Faz be in the comic much, and that therefore the storyline he is writing now does not 100% match up with a couple lines of dialogue (or requires a certain interpretation of that dialogue that wasn’t initially intended). Given how many comics have been published in this strip since it began in 2010, and the variety of amazing stories that have been told, and the constraint of so little time having passed, I think that something like that was bound to happen at some point.
And if it hasn’t happened yet, and isn’t with this storyline, I still think that it could easily happen in the future, unless David Willis has made it a priority for that to not happen. I am happy regardless, reading his stories brings so much to me, so whether his storytelling technique requires him to honour every line of dialogue or allows for occasionally changing up what he wrote long ago.. I don’t mind much
She hasn’t seen Blaine in three years, but the divorce finalized about 5 years ago. So that’s a two year gap for her to see her step brother.
That’s fair, though I would wonder why he wouldn’t go to where she was sooner…though, he could’ve assumed that since Amber would be with her mom, she would have sent him home (very possible) and that it could be an equally awful place to live.
Well, three years ago Faz was only 12. If he and Blaine don’t live nearby, it’d probably be hard to get there alone.
At least with Amber in school, he knows where she lives and (thanks to visiting on parent’s day) knows how to get there from wherever he lives. He might even have a learner’s permit to drive.
Could be that Amber drop offs occurred at a neutral site as well. Faz may not know where Stacy lives, even if it is close enough to get to himself.
That is also possible.
It may have gotten worse at home, what with Blaine having been in the hospital. I know that physical pain (not to mention however he’s emotionally dealing with Amber having beaten him up) could easily exacerbate pre-existing abusuve behaviors.
Does he know Amber beat him up? By his perspective he was beaten by some chick in a mask.
Are those numbers solid? All I remember is Amber saying she hadn’t seen him in years when he first showed up.
The incident with Sal was 5 years ago (they were 13), so I could see 5 as an upper limit, but do we know how soon after that the divorce happened?
Amber said three years when Blaine came by.
As for the divorce, it finalized around the time Blaine overruled everyone wanting to give Amber therapy and got her self-defence classes, so most likely not long after.
“It’s True I haven’t mentioned my erection in quite some time”….sounds like the title to an old Bill Cosby album (or, these days anyway, a NEW Bill Cosby album).
Truly a Moldy Oldie.
Panel Two Faz, though…it could be me misinterpreting, but he seems sad. I didn’t think I would or could sympathize with him?!
Wow this is a more vulnerable side to Faz I’ve never seen before… *Reads panel 5* – Welp that didn’t last long 😅
Yes, but empathetic Faz is less entertaining.
At first I thought he was calling his erection his “humanity”….
Human…
Human…
Human…
Faz… 😑
How the fuck did you make me feel bad for Faz? HOW? HOW?!?!?
Because the author is writing these characters as real people, and not the one dimensional caricatures that are easy to condemn that a lot of fans want to read them as- or, in fairness, maybe they’ve been used to viewing them as from previous strips (idk I’ve only read DoA.)
*Except for Mike and Mary who are unabashedly awful. Also Blaine/Toe-Dad.
And Not-Ryan and Sir.
Also, can I just say that I love the fact that despite us knowing Toe-Dad’s name, he will forever be Toe-Dad?
Much like Mike (and Robin), I’m not convinced that Faz can actually make the transition from SP! to DoA.
Mike was humanized in SP! while still remaining a force of nature – here he’s just a jerk.
Robin’s just a creepy parody of a politician.
Faz was never really humanized. Even there he was mostly a creepy parody. I’m not sure of the point of a Faz without his Fazness and I’m sure I don’t want a Faz who gets humanized through backstory, but doesn’t actually grow out of his awfulness.
Faz actually reminds me of one of my closest friends– not in personality, because ew, but just with his smile. I’ve known her since high school, and freshman and sophomore year, she was constantly smiling. Like, to the point that the first time I saw her not grinning, I didn’t recognize her. Meanwhile, her parents sucked majorly, were neglectful and abusive. By senior year I had gotten to know her better, and she smiled less, but I could tell she was, overall, happier.
Looks like they were right over in the Walkyverse that Faz dodged a bullet by not knowing Blaine. Also looks like Faz’s method of coping by saying inappropriate sexual things has carried over just fine.
Hmm. This Faz is a teenager. Do you think that implies he could grow out of what Walkyverse Faz was like? Hope so, for his sake.
In any case, he’s being oddly open with Joyce. Wonder if it’s because she hasn’t been as hostile with him? Or maybe because he saw her trying to bare her soul a little and get bailed on? Hmm.
I assume that title is locked in now.
Best title ever.
Wow, I really want to make a sarcastic and bitter comment since Faz hasn’t shown much proof of humanity before however if that’s true I feel bad. He’s now been dumped off to two different people today(one of whom is going to maybe be his step brother) and has no idea what to do. It doesn’it excuse his behavior and yet still I feel bad.
And still he thinks that’s a pretty good deal . lllll
Bagge, you were the one who thought he’d turn out to be a Becky parallel, right? ‘Cause if so, I have a bag of Called It Points for you. They’re all shaped like faces of dismay, but that’s normal for this strip.
Thank you. I wait with accepting them until we have a few more details, but yeah, that’s a very fitting shape.
Dammit, I liked it just fine when Faz was a nuisance to yell at and eventually ship to Abu Dhabi.
Does Faz have humanity?
Yes. What, was this supposed to be a trick question?
i’ve just realized my hair currently looks like his and i’m pissed
You’re starting to make me feel something approaching sympathy for Faz. Damn you Willis!
Joyce gives helpful advice – AND FAZ IS CONSIDERING IT!!! Wow. This really is something.
… Dammit, I feel bad for Faz now
God damnit Faz
Anyone else think he said “incest to me” at first
I won’t lie: yes.
I thought it was a faz thing and I automatically thought that at first til I reread it.
Yuuuuup.
Concerning the alt-text:
Winner winner chicken dinner!
Wait, so, for Faz, Amber is the nice one? Oh no.
How is that so terrible? She’s the only person she’s ever consistently been mean to.
I was going to add that I didn’t mean it in regards to Amber herself (I like her a lot!), but, looking at the interactions between Faz and Amber, and then to have Faz say that, from his perspective, she’s the person who treats him the nicest is like… oh no, Faz. Which is weird, because I didn’t actually expect to sympathise with him. Also, I’m doing a terrible job at explaining myself so I’m sorry about that.
I like this universe’s Faz. I’m interested to see a more human version of him after all these years.
Same here. Huzzah for character development!
I’m just not sure where character development for Faz goes without making him not Faz.
We can learn that’s he’s the way he is because of abuse, but then what? Leave him the creepy little pervert? Let him give up the creepiness and become a real person?
Real person? I take it that you are unfamiliar with the 4-Chan group, We Are Faz.
4-chan isn’t exactly where I go looking for real people
… That is a pretty good title for book 8.
*Reads alt-text*
“No.”
Don’t worry, he has to sell these books at conventions where children are eye level with the books.
….
Right, Willis?
Don’t tempt him, this is the Willis, he is capable of doing it.
Dammit, now there’s going to be character development for Faz! Damn you Willis!
On the bright side, Faz brings with him character development for: Joe, Malaya, Marcie, Amber, Danny, Joyce, and undoubtedly Raidah and Jacob too before this is all over. He’s a regular Mr. Mxyzptlk. (Loki, Coyote, Puck, Anansi, pick your Trickster.)
Q.
…Huh. Yeah. It fits. Cool! Thanks!
Joyce in the fourth panel: He is Faz, pervert. He will not cry, so I cry for him.
And…he’s back.
Too be fair, the people at home have to live with him 24/7.
Yup. Honestly Faz would get further with some honesty with Amber and them
Well he endured four panels without being creepy. I’d call that progress.
Dumbing of age is the brilliant brain child of which arcs and weeks/months of planning would lead to this. THIS. Exchange.
Go back home, creepy Faz.
So that’s two comics in a row where he also hasn’t referred to himself in the third person. I, me, etc. instead of awkwardly inserting his name in every part of every conversation.
He’s had more character development in the past week over his entire career. Viva le Faz…..for now…..
It’s weirdly humanising for him isn’t it? I don’t like it
I’m surprised Joyce feels any sympathy for him considering her feelings about male sexuality, but good for her
Has she heard him saying his usual bunch of pervy stuff?
Yes. We saw Faz make a comment in-comic when she caught him after Joe lost him, and from her text exchange with Joe it’s likely that wasn’t the only one.
And for that, we are thankful
Faz or no, you gotta be sympathetic to any teen with Faz’s home life.
Blaine should get an accidental meeting with Punisher…
I actually started writing a DoA/Punisher crossover story with Frank Castle teaching automotive engineering at IU but I couldn’t really get it past the initial stages. Long-term I was planning to have him adopt Ruth and Howie.
First lesson: How to equip your minivan with onboard weaponry and directional explosives in the door in case some shmuck tries to put a gun to your head through the window.
Faz’s erection caused the big bang. it will end the world too
If Amber is NICEST to him, what the hell is everyone else like?!
He’s with Blaine most of the time. Blaine, Amber’s father, is an emotionally and physically abusive shithead.
Blaine and Amber are all he really knows. So he goes to Amber.
Blaine is a huge a-hole and his mother’s… not around that much? Just a guess.
I’m too tired to express this properly, but @ other commenters: you’re good eggs
Holy effin swearword, Faz with human qualities?
Dumbing of Age continues to amaze
To be fair, an erecetion -would- lead. Since, you know, it sticks out 😀
Faz is reminding me an awful lot of a saying we have about my youngest nephew. “Negative attention is better than no attention.” For my nephew it’s not as bad as it sounds, he’s just a toddler (almost 4) who thinks crossing lines is hilarious. Faz however, is old enough to know what he’s doing.
And that reminds me of… I think it was Paris Hilton “It doesn’t matter how they talk about you as long as they talk about you”
Oscar Wilde said it even better.
Oscar Wilde died poor and alone, so how ever nice he said that, he seems to be disproven – at least if you are looking for a happy life.
Wilde went to prison because he was gay, and after serving his sentence fled to France, where he suffered from health issues as well as alcoholism later on, and was only sent money by his wife once a week, about 3 pounds, which even back then wasn’t that much. He had lost a lot of friends and family due to his homosexuality and due to moving away. One of the few friends who he still had remained by his bedside until he passed, however. He was not completely alone.
tl;dr, Yes (and no), but he shouldn’t have.
Just because he’s old enough to know doesn’t mean he has the skills or awareness to change it. Eventually it turns into depression, anger, denial, etc. I’ve heard 5th graders say they don’t care that they’re in trouble even though they’re clearly angry, but they just don’t know how else to act. They get to a point where they literally cannot behave any other way.
When toddlers do it, the goal is to train them NOT to act out for negative attention by giving lots of positive attention. If that doesn’t happen, they don’t know what else to do.
I will die before you drag a single shred of sympathy for Faz from me.
Then perish.
Even Faz would have to get some character shading in this AU.
I wonder if he was always this way before his stepdad showed up.
Damnit Willis, who said you could make us feel bad for Faz?
The last panel…
Twin triangle smiles.
I like the idea of Faz getting some character growth and not being such a gross, little dweeb. I don’t like feeling sorry for Faz and right now, I feel sorry for Faz….
With a Korean mobster mom. Is English Faz’s native Tongue? That might explain the awkward dialogue and constant smile. He just doesn’t always know what’s going on.
(5th day, 4th try)
Here I am again, talking to myself. Wondering how many other people are trying to comment, but whose comments are just never moderated. 🙁
Oh, it actually posted this time, it seems! Yay me!
Unfortunately my actual comment about the comic that I posted 5 days ago and that never showed up is no longer fitting… Maybe it’ll fit again with a future strip.
“Is it weird that I feel sympathy for [him]?”
Now the real question is – is he telling the truth? Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but to me it seems more likely that Faz is merely saying what he believes will make Joyce most sympathetic to him (though it seems I’m the only one with that position). I guess we’ll see.
I wonder, too. Let’s see which way the cookie crumbles.
Nothing Faz has said or done that far leads me to believe he is capable of either a) deducing what other people would like him to say, or b) filtering what he says to fit this.
Faz is a jackass but he’s not a manipulator.
Basically Faz is a jerk, but he lives in the same house with an abusive guy. Being an abuser is worse than being a casual jerk, and Blaine makes it worse because he doesn’t educate Faz. Without Blaine Faz would become just a slacker that watches too much porn, but with Blaine he would become a depressed slacker that watches porn and a 4chan alt right troll.
I’d say weirdo. Like nobody taught him how to behave around people. But other than Dino, who also behaves differently to most people, Faz says all this out of the world uncomfortable stuff. But not to make people uncomfortable on purpose, which isn’t being a jerk, it’s being weird. IMO.
I knew it’d make me sad. ❤️
Asma in the Patreon promo looks like she’s going to have a “right in front of my salad” moment.
Amber is nicest to him, and she treats him like a nuisance and does nothing but try to get rid of him.
So I’m guessing everybody else is worse.
Crap I didn’t put that together before. That’s actually sadder.
Well, at least now we have verification that Amber is better than Blaine, and therefore better than she thinks she is.
‘Nicest’
Shift those first two letters…
Just saying.
She said ‘humanity’, Faz, not ‘inanity’.
amber cant stand faz, and shes the nicest to him……………..thats so damn sad
Jesus Christ that third panel is depressing.
Can no one in this comic not have some sort of tragic backstory, have suffered under abuse, or is hated and mistreated by someone else? When can we just meet Jorge, the friendly guy who everyone loves and gets along with others, and helps other people? No, Jorge will secretly have a brother in prison who he feels guilty about because he blames himself for his situation, and takes it out on his roommate, or something.
When you MEET such a person, get back to me.
All people have personal struggles.
Dorothy.
Dina.
Carla (she’s trans, but had hugely supportive parents.)
Mike (he’s an ass all on his own, as is Mary, by word of Willis)
Dorothy’s got her insane perfectionist compulsion. Carla’so got bigotry from people like Mary – and, let’s face it, unless society completely changes, still has a life of struggles and adversity. Dina… OK, well, Dina is awesome.
Both Mike and Mary had very nice upbringings, with no tragedies that have been revealed so far.
There’s plenty of other characters whose backstory is currently unknown, and some of those might be completely free of prejudice, mistreatment, or personal tragedy, but it’s not like “my childhood was totally awesome and nothing sad ever happened to me” is the kind of thing that would add to the story or even come up in conversation.
I mean, it was already established that Faz lives with Blaine. It would just be unrealistic and odd if his home life WASN’T terrible, considering who Blaine is. I don’t really understand complaining about THIS reveal out of all of them.
I was wondering why Faz’s constant smiling bothered me so much.
Now I know. He’s like Soujiro from Rurouni Kenshin; he smiles regardless of what he’s feeling as a reflexive response due to a terrible childhood.
… Dammit, Willis, you made Faz a person.
is it bad I want to see Faz open his eyes and actually, maybe, show more emotion than the constant creeper smile…? There in there kid… let em out… just let em out…
What could be more humane than one’s throbbing erection?
Hmmm… he’s using first person, instead of referring to himself as “Faz” in the third person. This is probably as emotional as we’ll ever see him.
Still no excuse for him to be creeping on people.
It seems like he took Joe’s advice to heart.
which makes me wonder if other people don’t tend to give him advice kindly :/
How can an unchanging expression have that much nuance.
….
Excuse me, I need to hug my (obnoxious) baby brother.
I feel bad for Faz. His life is so bad that Amber who wants nothing to do with him is the nicest to him.
I feel bad for Faz? I need a shower.
Why do I feel his last coment was something in the vein of “oh, I need to say something gross now, I just revealed to many depth today”… like he is not completely unable of examining his own self… hm
*Throws hat* God damn character development…You know shit is awful when a clearly pissed off Amber is what he considers nice and you still feel form even after that last comment.